MaryPIRG's Brad Heavner

In pushing strong policies in the state Legislature, we often hear opponents say that our proposals might be good, but should really be made at the federal level.

In many cases, they’re right. It is better to have the federal government set uniform national standards than to have a hodge-podge of state standards across the country.

But when the federal government fails to act, state officials have a responsibility to protect our residents and natural areas. Plus, the federal government tends to be more of a follower than a leader.

The energy efficiency standards that MaryPIRG has been working on since 2002 are a perfect example. Four years ago, only one state had standards for appliances that were higher than federal standards. Clean energy advocates in 13 states decided to make a unified push to pass these standards in more states. Maryland was the first of these states to pass a bill, and eight other states have since followed.

When we passed our bill, it was clear that the deal on the table at the federal level wasn’t going to happen, and wasn’t as good as we wanted anyway. As more states passed standards, however, the deal got better and industry leaders were more willing to talk.

Then, in August of this year, the standards went national. We fought off a series of bad amendments, and Congress approved a final package.

The new national standards include all nine products that were in the Maryland bill. Eight of them are as strong or stronger than the versions we passed. Home Depot fought to the end against the other standard—for ceiling fans. They nearly succeeded in stripping it from the bill and pre-empting our state law, but in the end a standard passed that is 90 percent as strong as the original proposal.

In all, the new federal standards will cut projected U.S. electricity use by about 2 percent and save energy consumers about $63 billion.

It feels good to finally write the last chapter of this story. Thank you for your support along the way.